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Eat To Evolve is my platform to spread holistic nutrition to as many people as possible, especially those outside of my home town of Portland Oregon. As a former teacher I love to educate those who have an interest in nutrition.

Chapter 4 - Benefits of Optimal Testosterone

A lot of what decreases our testosterone is just a normal part of life, right: It’s commonplace and everyone accepts it as common.

Getting to bed early takes discipline, lifting heavy weights is hard work. When was the last time you sprinted like your life depended on it and felt your heart beat like a drum?

When you take these steps in life you slowly build confidence in your physical and mental capabilities, you begin to push harder and gain momentum going forward.

When you move pebbles daily, by the end of the year you have moved a mountain.

You have a choice to make. Do you want to be described as common and normal or are you willing to push yourself to achieve what you want?

If you look, feel and perform at your best, imagine what you are capable of in your life!

It all begins with your nutrition, sleep, exercise and lifestyle habits. These are the anchors that you build on.

While there are some supplements that provide benefits to boosting testosterone, they are worthless without the right lifestyle habits in place.

I doubt by now anyone needs convincing but before we get any further lets look at the benefits of optimizing your testosterone.

• Improved mood

• Decreased body fat

• Increased muscle mass and strength

• Improved cognitive ability

• Stronger bones/ bone density

• Improved libido

• Decreased the chance of Alzheimer's

• Increased motivation and competitiveness

Chapter 5 - How To Naturally Boost Testosterone

• Lift heavy weights: Focus on large compound movements that are going to engage the entire body. These include squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, dips and pull ups.

When lifting to maximizing testosterone it is going to be a good idea to lower the reps and use heavier weight.

A 5x5 program (5 sets of 5 reps) works well. The goal is to give enough stimulus to boost testosterone, but not to over train.

• Lose Fat: A certain percentage of all testosterone is converted into estrogen, and the enzyme that makes that conversion is in our body fat.

The more body fat you have the more of this enzyme you'll have. When you are eating healthier, exercising smartly, and sleeping you will lose fat.

• Eliminate sugar from your diet: Sugar is highly inflammatory and a large contributor to many of the metabolic problems people experience.

Frequent consumption of sugar or refined carbohydrates elevates the blood sugar, causing the release of the fat storage hormone insulin.

If insulin is present we are more than likely storing fat and not burning it. The amount of sugar in the standard American diet is a large contributor to many inflammatory diseases that plague our society, including obesity.

Adopt a stress reduction practice such as yoga, meditation or going for a calm walk outside when you need a break.

• HIIT/ sprints: Besides proper nutrition there is no better tool for fat loss than sprints. The beauty of sprints is that it builds muscle while burning fat at the same time.

Sprints also cause you to continue burning fat long after the sprint session has ended. Both High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and sprints create a boost in testosterone because of their intensity and brief duration.

• Get adequate rest and sleep: When you get adequate sleep you recover better from exercise, burn more fat, have more energy throughout the day and spend more time in an anabolic state. The body secretes testosterone and growth hormone during sleep.

There is a correlation between total time in bed andtotal testosterone production. Get off Facebook an hour earlier and head to bed. Aim for eight to nine hours of sleep and try to be in bed by 10:30-11:00 to allow the body to repair, rebuild and secrete testosterone.

• Have sex: I don’t think there a real need to explain this to any guy, but in the name of consistency I will. Just having an erection boosts testosterone; you might as well put the erection to good use.

• Eat cruciferous vegetables: vegetables such as brussel sprouts, radishes, kale, watercress, bok choy, broccoli and cauliflower all have phytochemicals that help to balance the estrogen to testosterone ratio, mitigating the negative effects of excess estrogen.

Zinc is an aromatase inhibitor, which blocks the production of estrogen or the reactions that take place at the estrogen receptor site. We want to optimize the ratio of testosterone to estrogen in the body.

• Get selenium from Brazil nuts: Eat two to four Brazil nuts daily to get selenium in a high bioavailable form. Do not over consume brazil nuts, you can overdo selenium and have adverse effects.

• Consume Omega 3 rich foods: Eat wild caught fish two to three times a week. If that isn’t a possibility you can always find high quality fish oil to supplement with.

• Optimize Vitamin D3 levels: Vitamin D3 is the bioavailable form that our body can use. It is a very difficult vitamin to get in the diet through foods, but if you live in a sunny region getting outside and getting sunshine on your skin for at least 20 minutes a day is the best way to naturally get vitamin D.

For those of us like myself who live in a region where sunshine isn’t always available, supplementing vitamin D is going to be the best bet for optimizing levels.

• Drink only from glassware: BPA is a chemical used to make plastic and other products. BPA imitates estrogen and binds to the estrogen receptors in the body.

By mimicking estrogen it negatively impacts the endocrine system and should be avoided by not eating or drinking out of plastics.

These grass fed animals also contain higher concentrations of vitamins and minerals. Protein and fat are both important components to making testosterone. When you get that fat and protein from healthier sources you are giving your body better quality raw materials to make testosterone.

• Reduce alcohol consumption: Don’t worry, I’m not saying to never drink alcohol again.I do, however, want to bring to light that alcohol has the ability to increase estrogen in our body.

Alcohol negatively impacts liver function; in turn the ability to process estrogen is reduced causing it to build up in the blood stream.

DISCLAIMER: This Blog is intended as an informational guide and is not meant to treat,diagnose or prescribe. For any kind of medical condition, disease state or physical symptoms. always consult with a qualified physician before making changes. The author does not accept any responsibility for your health or how you choose to use this information.

If you’re tired of working hard, and not getting the results you want, I can help you adopt the simple habits necessary to reach your health or fat loss goals.

These habits are based on getting you to your goal in a sustainable fashion that can be maintained. I’ll be there every step of the way to support and keep you accountable.

Get on a Strategy Call with me to Discover how to achieve your health or fat loss goals, and make them yours to keep this time around.

Whether you decide to work with me or not I can guarantee you will leave this call with more knowledge on how to achieve your goals.

Evolve Nutritional Therapy Strategy Session

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